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Tens of thousands of people were left without power and heating in southern Ukraine after Russian attacks on the frontline city of Kherson and Ukraine’s largest seaport, Odesa, authorities and a top energy provider said Thursday. Russia has sharply increased its attacks on Ukraine’s energy and utilities sector as winter approaches, plunging swathes of cities and regions into darkness. State oil and gas firm Naftogaz said a heat and power plant in the southern city of Kherson had been “almost completely destroyed.” Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the attack left 40,500 customers without heat. “This is a purely civilian facility providing heat to residents,” Naftogaz CEO Sergii Korteskyi wrote on X. “Such targeted bombing is terrorism.” Kherson, a frontline city that was for several months occupied by Russian forces after Moscow’s invasion in February 2022, comes under Russian missile, drone and artillery attack on an almost daily basis. Separately, Ukrainian energy company DTEK said Thursday that Russia attacked its energy facility in the southern Odesa region overnight, leaving 51,800 households without power. In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are grinding forward in the battlefield, attacks left about 60,000 residents without power, Kyiv’s energy ministry said. 

Al Raya newspaper highlighted the extent of regional and international concern over the latest Israeli attack on Syria, affirming that the escalation threatens efforts to restore stability to the country.In its editorial on Saturday, the paper referred to the massacre carried out by Israel at dawn on Friday in the Beit Jinn area in the Damascus countryside, which resulted in the killing of 13 people and the injury of others. It said that the attack falls within a series of systematic assaults targeting Syrian territory without justification, and that they come as part of Israel’s expansionist schemes.The paper added that this aggressive behavior comes at a time when international efforts are moving toward helping the new Syria recover and rebuild, making any military escalation a direct factor in disrupting the country. It stressed that the repeated Israeli attacks constitute a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and aim to create new pretexts for occupying Arab lands by exploiting the weakness of Syria’s security infrastructure during the recovery phase.Al Rayah noted that the State of Qatar strongly condemned the Israeli attack as a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law, warning that continued assaults will increase regional tensions and undermine efforts aimed at restoring security and stability.In this context, it highlighted the State of Qatar’s call on the international community to act immediately and stop the violations and hold those responsible accountable in accordance with international conventions.Al Raya also noted that Israel encourages certain factions within Syria to secede or rebel, considering that these policies are aimed at preventing Syria from regaining stability, as Israel is the sole beneficiary of any state of chaos in the region. It warned that continued Israeli attacks could push the region toward a wide-scale regional war from which no party would emerge unscathed, stressing that this path carries catastrophic risks for all amid the interlinked security and military files in the Middle East.The paper called on the international community to adopt a firmer stance toward Israeli violations and work to prevent sliding into an open confrontation that could destabilize the entire region.Al Raya concluded its editorial by saying that the latest Israeli attack is a dangerous indicator of the continuation of the escalation policy, and that any international disregard for these assaults will weaken pathways to a solution in Syria and keep the region trapped in a circle of tension.

The United Nations Tuesday condemned a surge in mass kidnappings in north-central Nigeria, calling on the authorities to take urgent steps to halt the attacks and bring perpetrators to justice."We are shocked at the recent surge in mass abductions in north-central Nigeria," UN rights office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva."We urge the Nigerian authorities -- at all levels -- to take all lawful measures to ensure such vile attacks are halted and to hold those responsible to account."His comments came as the recent abduction of hundreds of Nigerians, including almost 350 schoolchildren in just a matter of days, has reignited a pressing debate about the persistent security crisis gripping the country."At least 402 people, most of them schoolchildren, have been abducted in the states of Niger, Kebbi, Kwara and Borno since 17 November," Kheetan said, adding that "only 88 of them have reportedly been freed or have escaped from their captors".He called on "Nigerian authorities to ensure the safe return of all those still in captivity to their families, and to prevent further abductions"."They must also hold prompt, impartial and effective investigations into abductions and bring those responsible to justice."Mounting security fears in Africa's most populous nation have sparked a wave of school closures across some parts of the country.Since militants kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok town in northeast Borno State more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled with a spate of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments.Borno State is also the centre of a long-running insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people since 2009.

Ukraine struck a heat and power station in the Moscow region Sunday with drones, triggering a major fire and cutting off heating for thousands in one of Kyiv's biggest attacks to date on a power station deep inside Russia.In the fourth year of the deadliest European conflict since World War Two, Russia has been pummelling Ukraine's electricity and heat infrastructure while Kyiv has up until now mostly focused on trying to knock out Russia's oil refineries, crude terminals and pipelines. But early Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck the Shatura Power Station, about 120km east of the Kremlin, Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said.Video footage on Telegram showed balls of flames and black smoke rising into the night sky from the power station. Reuters was able to confirm the location, though not the date of the video. "Some of the drones were destroyed by air-defence forces. Several fell on the territory of the station.A fire broke out at the facility," Vorobyov said. Vorobyov said that backup power had been switched on and that mobile heating systems were being deployed to the area where the temperature was around freezing point. "All efforts are being taken to promptly restore heat supply," Vorobyov said. The town of Shatura has a population of about 33,000.One local resident said that there was no heating. Three transformers at the power station caught fire, the *Kommersant newspaper cited the emergencies ministry as saying. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.In recent weeks and months, there have been repeated power and heat outages in parts of Ukraine due to Russian attacks. Ukraine has tried to undermine Russia's war economy by targeting its oil revenues.Ukraine has also hit some power and heating installations in Ukrainian regions controlled by Russian forces and in Russian regions neighbouring Ukraine, but has thus far not inflicted major damage on electricity and heat stations serving Moscow and the surrounding region, which has a population of more than 22mn.Russia's defence ministry said Sunday it had downed 75 Ukrainian drones, including 36 over the Black Sea and several over the Moscow region. Russia's Vnukovo airport halted flights Sunday for about an hour before restoring them. The Shatura power station, one of Russia's oldest, was founded under Vladimir Lenin after the Bolshevik revolution, and used to run on peat. It now uses mostly natural gas.

Qatar strongly condemned the brutal Israeli occupation attacks in the Gaza Strip, which led to deaths and injuries, considering it a dangerous escalation that threatens to undermine the ceasefire agreement in the Strip. In a statement Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need for concerted regional and international efforts to maintain and adhere to the ceasefire agreement, paving the way for ending the war on Gaza and achieving a just and sustainable peace in the region.**media[384138]**The Ministry reiterated Qatar's firm and unwavering stance in supporting the Palestinian cause and the steadfastness of the fraternal Palestinian people, based on international legitimacy resolutions and the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.**media[384137]**Qatar condemns Israeli violation of Syrian territories Qatar strongly condemned the entry of the Israeli prime minister and a number of ministers and officials in the occupation government into the occupied Syrian territories, considering it a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the fraternal Syrian Arab Republic, a flagrant violation of international law, and a serious threat to regional security.**media[384139]**In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the international community to take urgent action to compel the Israeli occupation to comply with international law resolutions, particularly the 1974 ceasefire agreement, and to stop its repeated attacks on Syrian territory to prevent further escalation and tension in the region.**media[384135]**The ministry reiterated Qatar's full support for Syria's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the aspirations of its fraternal people for security and stability. Qatar slams Israeli airstrike on Ain al-Hilweh refugee campQatar strongly condemned the Israeli raid that targeted Ain Al Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, which resulted in martyrs and wounded.**media[384136]**The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement Thursday that this raid represents a brutal attack on the defenceless Palestinian people and the sovereignty of the sisterly Lebanese Republic, as well as a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions, stressing, in this context, the need for the international community to act urgently to stop the dangerous Israeli attacks that threaten to spread chaos and violence in the region.**media[384140]**The Ministry reiterated Qatar's position supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon, in addition to the just Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.

The perilous escalation of settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, which intensified during the olive harvest season, is occurring without any deterrence or accountability, and often under the direct protection of the Israeli army, Euro‑Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) said in a statement Sunday.The statement further indicated that this forms part of a deliberate and systematic policy that uses settler violence to reinforce Israeli control, alongside rapid settlement expansion and land expropriation to impose de facto annexation and displace Palestinian residents.The systematic escalation forms part of a broader effort to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank by depopulating it and expanding the territorial and operational influence of settlements, the statement continued.It added that this includes turning settlers into practical extensions of the army in attacks and land seizure operations, while imposing new patterns of field control that entrench separation and isolation between Palestinian communities, undermining any possibility of establishing a contiguous or independent Palestinian entity.Euro-Med Monitor's field team has documented a marked increase in settler attacks against Palestinians in recent weeks, particularly farmers. These attacks have included physical assault, theft of olive harvests, burning of trees, destruction of property, and preventing access to agricultural land, the statement read.The statement further stressed that dozens of incidents took place under the direct protection of Israeli forces, with soldiers participating in some of them, clearly indicating an integrated system aimed at persecuting and displacing Palestinians.In addition, Euro-Med Monitor documented 324 settler attacks over 39 days, from the beginning of October until the evening of November 8, averaging eight attacks per day. Settler violence during the current olive harvest season is the highest in years, with approximately 163 incidents resulting in injuries to more than 143 Palestinians and the destruction of over 4,200 trees and saplings across 77 West Bank villages, the statement added.It further noted that the attacks carried out by organised, militia-like armed settlers who launch from settlements and illegal outposts throughout the West Bank have become a systematic practice of armed violence against Palestinian civilians.

Ceasefire allows Palestinians to return home, but violence persistsHamas and Israel exchange hostages and bodiesIsraeli fire killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, north of the southern city of Rafah, which remains under Israeli control, according to local health authorities, further testing the fragile US-backed ceasefire.In a statement issued earlier on Monday, the Israeli military said forces identified "terrorists" who crossed the yellow line, which marks areas the army still occupies. It said they were advancing towards troops in southern Gaza, posing an immediate threat, before it struck them.Medics said one of those killed was a woman. The identities of the two others weren't immediately clear. The incident follows days of Israeli strikes on the enclave, provoking mutual accusations between Hamas and Israel over violations of the tenuous ceasefire that halted two years of war.Residents said Israeli forces continued to demolish houses in the eastern areas of Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City, where forces continue to operate.The ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10, has calmed most fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities, and more aid has been allowed to enter.Hamas turned over all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held by Israel. Hamas has also agreed to turn over the bodies of hostages, a process which is still incomplete and which it says is difficult, while Israel accuses Hamas of stalling.But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 239 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops.Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has targeted scores of fighters.Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday it received 45 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel whose bodies were in Israeli custody. Monday's handover raised the number of Palestinian bodies Israel has returned to Gaza to 270.Hamas has so far returned 20 of the 28 bodies of hostages that had been buried in Gaza.

The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Friday, killing three people, Palestinian health authorities said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement.Residents reported Israeli shelling and gunfire in northern Gaza on Friday, as Israel continued to bombard areas of the enclave despite saying that it remains committed to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.The Israeli military did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.Another Palestinian died of wounds sustained from previous Israeli shelling, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.The US-brokered ceasefire, which left thorny issues like the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip unresolved, has been tested by periodic outbreaks of violence since it came into place three weeks ago.Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people.Gaza's health ministry said the Red Cross had delivered to it 30 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel during the war, a day after Hamas handed over two bodies of hostages.Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released all living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel agreed to pull back its troops, halt its offensive and increase aid.Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in exchange for 360 Palestinian fighters killed in the war. After Thursday's release, it had handed over 17 bodies, while 225 Palestinian bodies have so far been returned to Gaza.Hamas has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies of all the remaining hostages.Israel has accused Hamas of violating the truce by stalling in the handover.

Israel said it struck an arms dump in Gaza on Wednesday, hours after the deadliest night of bombing since the start of a US-brokered truce, warning it would continue to operate to take out perceived threats.The military announced it had carried out a precision strike on a site in the Beit Lahia area of northern Gaza where it said weapons were being stockpiled. Israeli troops, it said, would remain deployed in "accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat".Hamas-run Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP that one Palestinian was killed in the latest strike -- and that 104 -- including 46 children and 24 women -- had died in the previous night's bombardment.The Israeli military launched a wave of bombing after one of its soldiers was killed in Gaza on Tuesday. By mid-morning on Wednesday it said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire".Hamas said its fighters had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah" and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-backed ceasefire.Both US President Donald Trump and regional mediator Qatar said they expected the ceasefire to hold, but inside Gaza displaced families were losing hope."We had just started to breathe again, trying to rebuild our lives, when the bombardment came back," said 31-year-old Khadija al-Husni, a displaced mother living with her children under canvas at a school in Al-Shati refugee camp."It's a crime. Either there is a truce or a war -- it can't be both. The children couldn't sleep; they thought the war was over."United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the report of so many dead was appalling and urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp", echoing calls from Britain, Germany and the European Union for the parties to recommit to the ceasefire.In the central city of Deir el-Balah, in a tent near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, 40-year-old Jalal Abbas was close to despair and accused the Israelis of using false pretexts to resume their campaign."The problem is that Trump gives them cover to kill civilians because they mislead him with false information," he told AFP."We want an end to the war and the escalation. We're exhausted and on the verge of collapse."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday expressed "deep concern" after the deadliest night of bombing in Gaza since a US-brokered truce went into effect earlier this month.Gaza's civil defence agency said the strikes had killed more than 100 people, including at least 35 children, a toll confirmed by an AFP tally of medical sources at five hospitals in Gaza."We appeal to Israel to exercise military restraint in order to prevent further suffering," Wadephul said in a ministry statement released ahead of a planned trip to the region.Israel carried out strikes on dozens of Hamas targets overnight to Wednesday following the death of a soldier.After the strikes, the Israeli military said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire", though explosions could still be seen on an AFP live video feed of the Gaza skyline after the statement was issued.US President Donald Trump, who helped to broker the nearly three-week-old truce, had earlier said that nothing would be allowed to jeopardise it. But he also endorsed Israel's right to "hit back" if attacked.Wadephul also called on Hamas to "fulfil its part of the agreement... to lay down its arms and finally hand over all the remains of the deceased hostages."Following the agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, there is hope for lasting peace, which we must continue to work towards," he added.Wadephul will first visit Jordan before heading to Lebanon and Bahrain, according to his ministry."During my trip to the Middle East, I intend to discuss with our partners where and how Germany can specifically accompany and support the next steps," he said.

The United Nations on Wednesday called the deaths in Israel's new military strikes on Gaza "appalling", as it urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp".Israel said it had carried out strikes on dozens of Hamas targets following the death of a soldier, with the Gaza Strip experiencing its deadliest night of bombing since a US-brokered truce went into effect earlier in October.UN rights chief Volker Turk said the attacks had reportedly hit schools, homes and tents for internally displaced people within the Palestinian territory."Reports that over 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in a wave of Israeli airstrikes mainly on residential buildings, IDP tents and schools across the Gaza Strip, following the death of an Israeli soldier, are appalling," he said in a statement."The laws of war are very clear on the paramount importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure."Turk said Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, and would be accountable for any violations."It is distressing that these killings occurred just as the long-suffering population of Gaza started to feel there was hope that the unrelenting barrage of violence may be at an end," he said.Turk called for all parties in the conflict to act in good faith and implement the ceasefire, and urged other countries, particularly those with influence in the region, to do everything in their power to ensure compliance."The past two years have brought untold suffering and misery, and the near wholesale destruction of Gaza," he said."We must not allow this opportunity for peace and a path towards a more just and secure future to slip from our grasp."

Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 11 people across the territory, as Israel and Hamas traded blame for violating a ceasefire.Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said six of the victims were killed when an Israeli strike targeted a "group of civilians" in northern Gaza.The Israeli military told AFP it was checking the reports of casualties.An army official earlier said Israel may carry out further strikes in Gaza after its forces targeted fighters following three attacks in the southern city of Rafah and the northern town of Beit Lahia.